Transocean Is Seeking to Limit Liability for Sunken Drilling Rig

Transocean Ltd. (RIG) , the world’s largest offshore drilling contractor and the owner of the semisubmersible drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, working approximately 41 miles offshore Louisiana on Mississippi Canyon block 252, that sank and exploded last month, killing 11 people, is seeking to limit its liability for the accident to about $27 million, according to a complaint the company filed in in U.S. District Court in Houston on Thursday.

Filing the complaint was “necessary to protect the interests of its employees, its shareholders and the company,” Transocean said in a news release.

[T]he complaint also asks that “the companies be judged not liable on claims for certain, defined losses or damages relating to the casualty or, if they are judged to be liable, that the liability for such claims be limited to the value of their interest in the Deepwater Horizon rig and its freight including the accounts receivable and accrued accounts receivable as of April 28, 2010. The petitioners assert in the filing that the entire value of their interest does not exceed $26,764,083. The petitioning companies in the action are Triton Asset Leasing GmbH, owner; Transocean Holdings LLC, contract operator; Transocean Deepwater Inc., employer of Deepwater Horizon crew, and Transocean Offshore Deepwater Drilling Inc., employer of land-based crew.”